‘Selfie-conscious?’

What’s wrong with everyone’s faces? Anyone scrolling through a social media account these days will notice a strange occurrence — our friends and loved ones are turning into elf-life creatures donning wreaths of flowers on their heads. Their eyes have suddenly grown bigger, and more anime-like. They even twinkle.

What?

No seriously, what?

Perhaps it’s my age — cough almost 40 — but I do not understand the age of selfies. I’m almost certain we had enough problems with perception and societal pressures that we didn’t need to add such weird, unrealistic filters to the mix.

A study conducted by the Today show in 2014 found that 41 percent of adult women say that selfies and other flattering online photos make them “feel more confident.” About 46 percent said social media made them feel more self conscious about their appearance.

Not surprisingly, 65 percent of teenage girls said selfies and flattering online picture make them feel confident, while 55 percent report feeling “selfie-conscious,” according to the Today survey.

Yikes.

Problems with self-perception and self-esteem certainly didn’t start with social media and crazy apps, but they certainly aren’t helping.

As if backward facing cameras on smartphones weren’t bad enough, the list of new filters that alter and reshape our faces has become so out of control that cosmetic doctors have actually seen an uptick in people bringing in filtered and otherwise altered photos to point out what they want fixed, according to an August article on CNN.

They actually have a name for it — “Snapchat dysmorphia.”

I think it’s time we all put the phones down, and at the risk of sounding a little cliché, remember it’s not what’s outside that should define who we are.

I won’t pretend as though I’ve never taken a selfie. But, I do feel a little silly about taking and then posting photos of myself.

I mean, who cares?

I am guilty, however, of thinking my kids are the most adorable kids to ever walk this planet. I have even (gasp) taken their photos through filters and sent them to grandma for a laugh. What’s better than a pile of mashed potatoes on my 7-year-old’s head? Yes, it was weird, but, it was also fun.

And filters like this can be. The key is not to let it get out of control — and it’s pretty clear some of us have.

Since I was once a teenage girl, I feel it’s safe to muse I’m happy I don’t have to raise one. Teenage girls struggle with appearance more than any other demographic. The Today survey found that while 60 percent of adult women have negative thoughts about themselves, 78 percent of teenage girls do.

That’s alarming. So what can we do about it?

For starters, perhaps we can stop spending so much time on social media. Let’s remind ourselves that what truly matters in this world are real tangible things — like the other live human beings in our lives.

They aren’t looking at us through filters.

We must also learn to accept ourselves and all our imperfections.

“It is not a bad thing to be invested in our appearance,” said Jonathan Rudiger, a clinical psychologist in Nashville, in an article on Today.com. “Our physical appearance is very much a part of the ‘self.’ However, we must avoid investing in our appearance for self-worth. Appearance is only one aspect of the self. In our culture, we spend too much time focused on the external while neglecting the internal.”

Social media has many positive uses, like staying in contact with distant friends. But it’s also a reflection of our time, and unfortunately, ourselves.

But social media isn’t doing this to us, we’re doing this to ourselves.

Mary Ann Heath is editor of The Journal and mom to Thomas, 7, and Jack, 5.